Body of missing kayaker found in Sunset Bay

Tonight, crews are continuing their search for 20-year-old Dylan Lathrop. He disappeared while kayaking with three friends Tuesday night.

WKBW

20 year-old Dylan Lathrop went missing after he and three of his friends were capsized from their kayaks late Tuesday night. Crews are searching in, on and above Lake Erie and the Cattaraugus creek for Lathrop.

WKBW

7 Eyewitness News at 6am

WKBW

SUNSET BAY, N.Y. (WKBW) - The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office reports Thursday morning that they found the body of a kayaker who went missing Tuesday evening.

Twenty-year-old Dylan Lathrop of South Dayton disappeared around 8 p.m. Tuesday in Sunset Bat after waves capsized his kayak while he was kayaking with three other men near the Cattaraugus Creek Harbor.

The sheriff's office said divers located Lathrop's body around 10 a.m. Thursday morning near where his kayak originally capsized. The water was about 16-feet deep, and crews said recovery efforts were hampered by extremely poor visibility.

After the call came in Tuesday evening, Sunset Bay Volunteer Fire Company Chief Robert Weiskerger said his department was on scene within three minutes. Three of the four victims were able to make it back to the shore without any rescue intervention.

Jet skis from the fire company were deployed within minutes of arriving on scene.

Weiskerger estimates that his crews encountered four to eight foot waves. At times the waters so rough, search crews were capsized themselves. "In the search area, with jet skis, twice they actually rolled the machines themselves and were able to self right and extricate themselves."

Weiskerger said crews initially thought they had a visual on Lathrop, but were mistaken.

The fire company searched for Lathrop a few hours past sunset Tuesday. Underwater divers from the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office took over the search until it was called off nearly five hours later.

Crews resumed the search at daylight Wednesday with mutual assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office, Sunset Bay Volunteer Fire, Silver Creek and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Crews suspended their search Wednesday night after finding Lathrop's kayak. They began looking again Thursday morning.